Mauritius: More than 2,450 Mauritian school leavers children living in streets

Photo lemauricien.com

A recent survey of non-governmental organization SAFIRE (alongside training for integration and Rehabilitation of the child Service) reveals that 2.454 children living on the street are out on the 6.780 listed youth.

"All regions are affected by this problem. But poverty areas cause more worries," said the Director of the Organization non-governmental SAFIRE, William Ferhat, who is sounding the alarm on the situation on the ground with young children left to themselves and outside the school system yet compulsory until 16 years in Mauritius.

Nicknamed the "jockeys" on the island, these street children are at the mercy of illegal trafficking and begin very early to immerse in alcohol or drugs.

"Most non-schoolgoing children have left school because of their recurring failures... Nothing is done to help these children to adapt to the current school system", argues William Ferhat which implicitly calls the Mauritian authorities to assume their responsibilities on the subject.

As a reminder, according to figures from the Ministry of Education published last April, 9.286 children aged 5 to 16 years no longer attend school benches to follow a normal education whereas in 2010 there were 11.387 children school against 10,702 in 2011, as relates the newspaper Le Défi Quotidien.